Blog

Discover Lyon

To give you a taste of all the gems and discoveries that await you in what is called the second capital of France, hop on the bus with us and discover Lyon!

Like any good newcomers, let’s go to the Old District of Lyon (the 5th district). Beware if you fail to bring your city map and your camera, you’ll miss out on all the greatness of this very intricate area.
What characterised this neighbourhood are the cobblestones called “cat’s head” (which are believed to have given flat and large feet to all of Lyon’s true maidens), also old but yet well conserved buildings from the Renaissance period, groups of tourists that are jostling each other in the small alleyways and noisy multilingual city guides, all of this contribute to liven up this lovely neighbourhood.

To further our journey into discovering the gems of Lyon, but in a less stifling way, we invite you on the peninsula at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saone rivers, in what we call the “Presqu’île” district, full of large Haussmannian boulevards, where you’ll be able to experience the best shopping venues, but also many mesmerising museums, most of the famous cooking scene and local cuisine (which we are very proud of), and the nightlife scene with a huge sample of bars and clubs to taste whatever comes to your mind, something fancy, exotic or crazy, we got it all covered!

If you happen to lose your way in the Old District, you may land on the slope of Saint Just. Don’t worry you’ll quickly notice it due to the pain you’ll experience in your calves and thighs. It’s a nice, very typical neighbourhood, with an amazing view on the Lyon’s skyline, but it goes up fast!

Looking for another place full of bars, restaurants and parties? Let’s go to the 7th District, in a place called “Guillotière”. It’s cosmopolitan and very trendy these days. Another trendy place to visit for parties and drinks is the slope of the 1st District called “Les Pentes”. A very festive area and to top it off, if you are an art enthusiast, you’ll love this artsy district full of art galleries and workshops of all kinds.

But if you want something more distinguished to spend the night away, welcome to Massena and Guichard neighbourhoods, it’s classier and a bit quieter than the previous places. Not far from there you’ll find the Part-Dieu vicinity, it’s a true copy of the district of La Défense in Paris.

From there, if we go up North, we arrive in “Les Brotteaux” Neighbourhood, the poshest place in Lyon, with fancy buildings, private hotels, where the gentility has its habits. In this place you’ll be able to stroll around the “Parc de la Tête d’Or”, which is Lyon’s finest park, where you’ll experience exquisite different gardens surrounding a pond where you can enjoy boating activities.

You’ll surely understand that yes there are lots of other districts and neighbourhoods, but it’s far and kind of useless. To the South it’s a bit creepy, unsafe, except for the “Gerland” vicinity which is the previous HQ of the footies and other Socceroos’!
Before I forget, if you are a part of, or totally into Hipsters or Bohemian-Bourgeoisie, you can go to the “Croix Rousse” neighbourhood it’s like a small village on top of a hill, very family friendly too.

And for the rest of the city, we admit that we don’t know or don’t go there that often, because as you just discovered it through this article, we already have a huge amount of things to do right here! So, when are you coming?